Were Google’s Practices Anti-Competitive or Just Anti-Competitor? - The New Yorker

Final paragraph from a Google evil-o-meter reality check; also see Google News buries news of Google's FTC investigation under Daniel Lyons fluff (AppleInsider)

"Google’s rivals seem to have learned from their interactions with the consumer-oriented F.T.C. This time, in making their case to the E.U., they appear to be far more focussed on arguing that Google’s behavior harmed not only them but consumers, too. On a Web site called Focus on the User, which is available in four European languages, Yelp, TripAdvisor, and others, including consumer groups, are making this argument directly; Yelp and TripAdvisor even developed a tool showing that, presented with certain kinds of search results that favor Google sites alongside those that don’t, users find the latter more useful. Such lobbying, coupled with the knowledge that the F.T.C.’s own staff members found Google’s practices to be anti-competitive, could well influence European policymakers in their investigation of the company."

Were Google’s Practices Anti-Competitive or Just Anti-Competitor? - The New Yorker